Today, we’re proud to introduce a new look and feel for Kiva, and a new, mobile-responsive website that makes supporting small businesses around the world easier than ever.

When Kiva began in 2005, we had a simple goal: to connect borrowers who need small amounts of capital to improve their lives, with lenders who want to help. Ten years later, we’ve seen the incredible power and impact of this model brought to life thanks to millions of dedicated contributors like you.

Kiva’s grown into a true global community, where people come together to support and believe in each other. That's part of the story we hope to capture with our new imagery.

Through Kiva, each of us has the power to create opportunity and help others work towards their dreams. Whether it’s a loan to a rural farmer in Kenya, or a rooftop farmer in Detroit, we can each play a special part in someone else's story.

Along with the new look and feel, there are new improvements to the site and lender experience. A few features you might like to explore:

• Quick and easy category browsing, which is especially helpful when making loans on your phone or tablet. It’s never been so easy to make a difference while you wait for the train!
• Improved filter experience for drilling down to all your favorite locations and types of loans. Now you can filter loans by lender-generated tags as well.
• A new feature on each loan profile highlights what makes the loan special from a Kiva staff member’s perspective. We’re constantly working to serve borrowers’ unique needs and now there’s a place to surface that information for our passionate lender community.

We’re also happy to announce our direct lending program, Kiva Zip, graduated out of beta with a new name–Kiva U.S.– and a new home on Kiva.org. This means each lender's activity is now centralized under 1 account, with 1 balance and lenders can move seamlessly between supporting businesses around the world and in the U.S. Kiva has worked with financially excluded and socially impactful businesses in the U.S. since 2009.

All of the changes and improvements to our site will help us multiply Kiva’s impact and reach even more communities and families over the next 10 years. And because of people like you, Kiva will continue to be a special, hopeful corner of the internet.

We’re so excited to share this next chapter with you. Thank you for joining us on this journey, and for investing in a better, more equitable world.

I have to say I also preferred the old format. It had a better looking design and was very easy to navigate already. I wasn't sure if I was going to the right website! Is it possible or economically feasible to design an app for mobile users instead of this change for all users?

Most "mobile-friendly" sites give the option to switch to the full desktop site (which presumably would be similar to the recent previous website). There is so much lacking on this cumbersome version that I'm thinking of changing to another NGO instead. Sorry.

I sent this to the Kiva email, now I am copying it to here:
I have been making loans through Kiva every month for 2 or 3 years now. I have only been mildly inconvenienced by some of the navigation on the old pages.
I have to say that I Hate the new pages.
I am not just a crank who doesn't like change. I have some experience in text layout.
I am an artist and a technical writer. I have laid out text and critiqued layouts before in previous jobs.
> The huge, colored type feels like I am being shouted at. Larger type might be helpful for some folks - I wear reading glasses - but good heavens people!
> The vast amount of white space makes the pages seem cold, impersonal, and downright unfriendly - especially the ones that indicate that there are no loans in that area. I much prefer pictures of people over "Not here, stupid."
> The information I want used to be laid out conveniently on one page. It now seems randomly scattered over so wide an area that I have scroll around to find what I want. On some of the loans, important information about the borrower was below a section on fellow lenders - something I have no interest in - and I almost missed it. If these folks really, truly want to let the world know how generous they are (I don't - I would be embarrassed ), then put their pictures at the bottom of the page, not smack in the middle.
> The pictures of the borrowers are now cut up in strange ways. Some people were not even visible until I clicked on the loan and brought up the page.
> You now have two ways to lend. If one doesn't click on the loan, one can just hit the $25 button - if you can catch it as it bounces up and down on the screen. Or, if one clicks on the loan, one can choose an amount, then hit yet another button - Yes! I want to make the loan now!
> The long list of larger amounts made me feel harassed to lend more money than I am comfortable with. You could explain in the introduction to the site that people can lend more than $25. How about just hitting the $25 button more than once? Or have a button marked "other" that opens a window in which a person could type the amount they wanted?
I will continue to make my monthly loans but it will be a painful experience having to look at these cold, ugly, inconvenient pages.

New Format - Frustrating
Basically has discouraged me from making new loans. Was the old one "broken"? I don't think so....
I am trying to lend money, not learn a new piece of software/web-site interface.

I have no problem with the new format. One thing I'd like to have in the field partner section of each lender is a direct link to other fundraising loans of that field partner. But I usually don't use mobile devices for lending so it's also fine without.
The one thing I don't like is the merge with Kiva Zip. Since it now is only one account and the same page it got a lot easier and more comfortable for the borrowers to spam in the team message boards. And our team captains rarely catch it in time to prevent it from going into the daily digest. I really hate that our message board has turned into a place for people to beg for money instead of sharing common interest loans.

I have to say ditto to the majority of comments here. The old interface was clear and intuitive. This one is just annoying. There must be a better way to accommodate mobile users without making the computer/large screen experience crappy. I've made over 900 loans so I obviously like the organization but this definitely detracts from the experience.

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Talea is excited to combine her love for powerful storytelling and her digital strategy experience. She comes to Kiva from the Kaiser Family Foundation, where she managed digital strategy for the foundation's consumer-focused PSA campaigns. Prior to that she was a reporter and producer at the PBS NewsHour for five years. At the NewsHour she had the opportunity to travel extensively in the developing world as part of the program's global health unit, covering a wide range of stories including the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, doctor shortages in Tanzania and the mistreatment of the mentally ill in Indonesia. In addition to being a news junkie,
Talea enjoys photography, hiking and attempting to paint. She graduated from Northwestern University with a B.S. in Journalism and is originally from Maryland. So she also knows a lot about horses.

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Kiva's Comment Policy

To encourage conversation and build community on Kiva's blogs, we've made commenting accessible and viewable by anyone visiting Kiva. Given this high visibility, we ask that you abide by the following guidelines when posting a comment:

Comments should be relevant to the content of specific blog posts and are not to be used for self-promotion or to advertise or solicit.

Please refrain from using profanity or language that may be seen as degrading or disrespectful.

Commenters are expected to accurately and honestly represent themselves. False identities will not be tolerated.

Kiva reserves the right to remove comments in violation of this policy. See Kiva's Terms of Use Agreement for more information on user-generated content.

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Kiva connects millions of people through lending to alleviate poverty. Read about our partners, programs and loans here. Or check out stories straight from the field on the Kiva Fellows Blog. Have questions? Send them our way at blog@kiva.org.